Up the Creek

I love the sight of the bee on my basil and the surprise of the Great Blue Heron flapping up Four Pole Creek. Occasionally, on my morning jog, I'm lucky enough to see him gliding silently over the water, his 4-5 foot wing span seeming to cover the entire width of the creek. That's quite an urban sight.

Emerson and Thoreau professed the intrinsic necessity for humans to be contemplative in nature. They found it the way to illumination and epiphany--the clear path to the "seat of the soul." Muir had an ecstatic, religious experience in the untouched, open spaces and high places of the Tetons and would go on to become a significant force in preserving and creating Yellowstone. Olmstead 's vision created the complementary coexistence of wilderness and city in his parks, including Central in NYC and Cherokee in Louisville, KY. These visionaries knew humans craved the expansion of human inventions and glittering cities; yet, they also understood the key to maintaining a healthy modern society. Several game hunters have conveyed a similar message to me. They actually appreciate the quiet, alone hours spent in the woods and on the waterways as much as the hunt itself. The key to our wholeness is regular time spent in nature.

Bear Rocks, Dolly Sods, WV

People who think wild areas should be preserved for nature's sake are called any number of adjectives with negative connotations from "knee-jerk liberal," to "treehugger," to "hippy."
However, the small farmer Wendell Berry and orchard keeper Robert Frost would not describe themselves in those terms, but they certainly have written treatises about the uneqivocal measure of the natural world. Teddy Roosevelt was a man's man and avid big game hunter, but he knew the immeasurable importance of preserving large swaths of unspoiled nature for the future of our existence.

Jesse Stuart wrote fond memories of the good life in the rolling hills of Northeastern Kentucky and Silas House has written the true to life account of the coming of the lumber mills and strip mines to Southeastern Kentucky. The people who lived in the hills took the good paying jobs that depleted all the old growth forests and that denigrated their family land. They too were caught up in the coming of the machines, the rolling in of dollar bills even if to sacrifice their beloved hills. It's always been this way, from coal to sugar cane. The people pay in so many irreversible ways just to earn a living. In Silas House's, Coal Tattoo, the main character finds herself married to the son of a big coal operator. I say "finds" because she wakes up one day in her big, fine house on the hill, utterly empty and alone-- above the rumble and lights of the mine site, and over the company houses. She is literally looking out upon grey slurry and muddy, treeless coal roads that used to be her family forests and meadows. She and her womenfolk eventually do what seems unthinkable. They are so torn in their hearts by the ripping apart of the hills that they lie down in the haul road, their desperate act of defiance. The very land they grew up on is about to be destroyed. The sheriff, who has known them all their lives, has to cuff the ususally mild mannered one and carry her to the paddy wagon.

Mountaintop Removed in Pike Co., KY

This is where we are today. The great American visionaries of the past helped preserve the western U.S, and some urban areas and key spots on the eastern seaboard. The ancient Appalachians, however, are pieces of a patchwork quilt scattered about, unconnected and unprotected. We have Shenandoah and the Smokies, but in between, hugh chunks of at least 5 states have been leased to the men with the mighty machines. People from the same place are pitted against one another in a fight for their lives. Miners and mountain people threaten each other and their livelihoods. People from the foothills and the cities fight the battle, some dismissing the fervor as just the stage for those "knee-jerk, liberal, hippy, treehuggers" to have a parade, while other urban dwellers, most with ties to the mountain communities and family from the mountains, are piecing together a new vision.

The great divide continues. Those with money and power over the land wish to continue to profit despite the unconscionable destruction they wreak. The working people are scared for their jobs while many mountain people and their land-protector allies fight for the legacy of this land, these waters, this air, these creatures, this culture.

There is a way, amid the outlandish propaganda thrown in all directions. It will not come easily, but we can make progess to green energy and green jobs, The mines will not be shut down overnight. It is called transition, not to job loss, but to new kinds of jobs. But it will require unity, and we are sorely lacking that in this country. I was told that where a deep mine used to employ 900 people for decades, the same MTR site above the old mine now employs maybe 20 people for just a few years. So much for job security.

However, this is not just a regional issue, nor is it a bandwagon just for "hippies." And biodiversity is not a big word reserved for scientists. Without a wide array of prospering flora and fauna, we sacrifice clean air, healthy food and medicine.

This is the future of your health at stake all across this country.
For what starts upstream eventually comes downstream into your river, your creek, your pipes, and your home from, "the redwood forests to the gulf stream waters." Get out your paddles. At least take a look at what it means to be green and look at some of the work others are doing to make the shift into a sustainable economy and a sustainable natural world. Sierra, OVEC, Powershift, Coal RIver Watch, Mountain Keepers and ilovemountains, just to name a few. The urban and the natural worlds can coexist.